1st week of autumn here and my boy has already started his first brumation- scary! He reduced eating for 2 weeks slowly eating less and less and sleeping more and more then 5 days ago he stoppped eating all together and only occasionally opening his eyes. Two days ago I got him out and soaked him to get bowels moving and lifted him out in time to catch poop sample. Still waiting on results from the vet but I would be surprised if he has parasites as he was treated not long ago and his poops were normal leading up to this

Well I had a bad start. Even though Marlow was poop sampled a couple of months ago and treated for parasites I decided to do another from his last poop before brumation. I took it in on Wednesday and was told the would call if anything wrong with it on Thursday. No call- and on Friday also no call. I presumed all was fine and went ahead and let him go into full brumation on Saturday. Monday I decided to ring the vet just to check anyway as I didn’t feel right about the situation. Vet nurse answers and tells me they will call me back in half an hour of an issue as they have the results etc. no call. Tuesday I decide to call again anyway - call me over paranoid but I wanted confirmation. Well - they stuffed up. Yes his results had come back with HIGH pinworms! And no one told me. I let him go into brumation and that could have been prevented had they done their job.

Woke him straight away and took him to the vet for medicine and now I’m trying hard to keep him up until after he poops out again once meds do their job.

There is NO reptile vets where I am. None. Auckland has some but that’s 8hours drive away lol.

Really sorry to hear that. That is totally unacceptable, even if they’re not specialist. Anyway, it paid off going with your gut instincts. So you weren’t paranoid, you were actually right.

Anyway, seems like a lot of dragon owners in NZ are going through Brumation. My one is doing something weird. Losing appetite, pretty sleepy for most of the day. Usually lies on her log most of the day, but not fully asleep. Going to bed only slightly early. There’s a part of me that’s saying “why don’t you fully sleep like all the others” lol

Anyway, had check up with reptile vet a couple of months ago and all clear. But after hearing your story, might check up again.